Read the entire Editorial: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-foia-0127-jm-20130127,0,4995587.story Nine months ago, the nonprofit For the Good of Illinois asked the Illinois comptroller’s office […]

WHAT WE FOUND: Legal pension corruptions of non-government organizations who have “muscled” themselves into our government pension plans. Because of openthebooks.com, Sen. Matt Murphy (R- Palatine) drafted SB2499- Pension Abuse Loophole Reform. This legislation would simply codify into law, “Government pensions are for government employees, period.” Insiders are literally draining tens of millions of dollars from hard working rank-and-file teachers, goverment employees and taxpayers. This abuse needs to stop. Watch our Thompson Center press conference here.

How many people received a paycheck for a pension check from some level of Illinois government last year?
1 million people

In 2010, how many public employees out earned the governor and collectively what was their total compensation?
3,062 pubic employees- costing taxpayers nearly $1 billion of total compensation.

ACCOUNTABILITY: As US Senator Everett Dirksen said, “When I feel the heat, I see the light.”

Our portal has a unique feature to “salary graph” the ten year history of most public employees. See the massive pay hikes that public employees have experienced over the last ten years. While, private sector pay increases are up only 27% according to the National Average Wage Index, most Illinois public employees have pay increases of between 60-100% since 2001.

Payroll and pension costs are 70-80% of a local government operating budget.

We believe that 100% transparency of public information is the only way citizens can hold their elected officials accountable.

At For The Good of Illinois, our Open The Books Project has set a national standard of proactive transparency. Before citizens even conceive of a question regarding pay and pensions of public officials, the information is already posted on our website, www.openthebooks.com.

In The News

As rolled out first in California, the Trigger means that when more than half of a failing school’s parents sign a petition of no confidence in their school’s management, local school authorities are obliged to convert the facility to an independently man

U.S. Rep Danny Davis’s mayoral campaign released five years of the congressman’s federal and state income tax returns today, disclosing annual income of more than $200,000 from his congressional salary and pension earnings.

Republican Dwight Kay was elected to the Illinois House, defeating Democrat Jay Hoffman, who held the 112th District seat most of the time since 1990. Both the Illinois House and Senate retained reduced Democratic majorities.

State Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon, joined Decatur Republican Adam Brown, who ousted state Rep. Bob Flider Tuesday, in speaking before the assembled Chamber members. Both candidates thanked their supporters and families and expressed joy in their triumph

Republican Dwight Kay was overjoyed Tuesday night at defeating 16-year incumbent Jay Hoffman, D-Collinsville by a vote difference of 51 percent to 49 percent in the race for state representative for the 112th District.

Republican Sam McCann of Carlinville won an Illinois Senate seat long held by the Demuzio family on Tuesday. With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, McCann had 34,206 votes to incumbent state Sen. Deanna Demuzio’s 31,725 votes.

EDWARDSVILLE -- Spending in the race for the 112th House seat has topped $1 million, one of the top 20 legislative races in the state. Read more: http://www.bnd.com/2010/10/26/1451077/hoffman-kay-race-exceeds-1-million.html#ixzz144QDea54

Adam Andrzejewski didn’t gain much traction in his maiden run for political office in February, but the Republican businessman from Herscher coined a phrase that continues to reverberate through the 2010 election. Read more: Herald & Review Blogs htt

Since July 1, for example, campaign committees controlled by Democrats gave $447,769 to Sen. A.J. Wilhelmi, who's worried about losing his normally safe 43rd District seat to Republican Cedra Crenshaw, a tea party favorite. Republican committees have give

The National Federation of Independent Business, Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. and the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, today endorsed Sam McCann (R) for the 49th State Senate seat currently head by incumbent Deanna Demuzio (D) of Carlinvil

The state’s record budget deficit is likely to get worse before it gets better, according to a recent report released by state Comptroller Dan Hynes. The Comptroller’s report said lawmakers and the next Illinois governor could face “the very real possibil

Two Decatur-area Republican candidates picked up a raft of endorsements Wednesday from a number of pro-business groups. Representatives of the Illinois Manufacturers' Association, National Federation of Independent Business and Illinois Chamber of Commerc

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. directed a major political fund-raiser to offer former Gov. Rod Blagojevich millions of dollars in campaign cash in return for an appointment to the U.S. Senate, sources said the fund-raiser has told federal authorities.

It's the same story at the district offices of Illinois' elected legislators across the state: Phone, utilities, garbage and rent payments months behind, prompting a monthly flurry of terse late notices and cutoff threats to offices with the state emblem

Another inspector for the city of Chicago was sentenced to 21 months in prison last Friday. Thomas Ziroli was a ventilation inspector for the city of Chicago's Department of Buildings. A federal jury convicted Ziroli of bribery in March 2010 for accepting

When I read the article in The Telegraph on Aug. 5 titled, "Bill Haine questions statements on Service Record," my heart sank. I was disheartened with the implications in the article and the political attempt to hurt a candidate on the other side of the a

A Madison County Board member wants to put the county's checkbook online and said the county administration is dragging its feet on doing so. Read more: http://www.bnd.com/2010/08/24/1374284/is-madison-county-dragging-its.html#ixzz0xdzUKt3Z

Here's their shocking truth: Even if Illinois used all of its assets -- except for our infrastructure such as roads, bridges, buildings, land, etc. -- we would not have enough to pay the $140.6 billion of bills when they come due.

In his Chicago Tribune column today, John Kass reports that Democratic Chicago Alderman - and possible mayoral candidate - Scott Waguespack is calling for a "forensic audit" of the financial records of the City of Chicago.

Gov. Pat Quinn’s chief of staff resigned Sunday after the Chicago Sun-Times posed questions about a probe of three politically oriented correspondences sent from his government e-mail account in possible violation of a state ethics law.

Sudden headlines of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s self-assurance upon the assign of fibbing to the FBI had officials, possibilities for open bureau as well as residents thrown for the double back Tuesday.

A true financial valuation of unfunded pension liabilities reveals a debt of more than $200 billion for the state and local governments. That is around $42,000 per Illinois household and only counts benefits that public employees can claim based on today'

This past Friday, well over 500 people attended the McCann/Rosenthal Grand Slam Event in Carlinville, Illinois. The district wide event was an all day fundraiser for Sam McCann, Republican Candidate for the State Senate’s 49th District and Wayne Rosenthal

Party leaders brought out the big guns to try to blow Republican challenger Cedra Crenshaw off the November ballot for the 43rd District seat. But a Will County judge ruled Wednesday that Crenshaw's ballot petitions are valid, rejecting the argument contr

"I think the people in Springfield owe us an apology," said Kay, of Glen Carbon, referring to what he called Illinois' financial "death spiral." Read more: http://www.bnd.com/2010/07/30/1346577/kay-vows-to-fix-states-money-issues.html#ixzz0wjoByZnl

Dwight Kay says that if voters elect him as the area’s state representative in the fall, he will take a 10 percent pay cut. First-year legislators in Illinois make $67,836 per year, and Kay’s action would save taxpayers $6,783. In addition, Kay said he wo

The Illinois State Chamber of Commerce has awarded State Sen. Kyle McCarter with their Outstanding Freshman award for support of key legislation, ‘in the defense of free enterprise, and the furtherance of economic opportunities for Illinoisans.’

With fewer than 100 days to go until the election, Republican candidates are leading the fundraising battle over their Democratic opponents in Decatur, according to the most recent campaign contribution reports from the Illinois State Board of Elections.

Speaking Thursday, McCarter said Dudley did not defend the 2nd Amendment. "Actions speak louder than words," McCarter said. "He voted against a resolution supporting the 2nd Amendment as a member of the Macon County board. It doesn't matter if it's bindin

The Jacksonville businessman who heads his local 9-12 group and has arranged for SAMUEL “Joe the Plumber” WURZELBACHER to come to central Illinois this month is also a key contributor to the state Senate campaign of Republican SAM McCANN of Carlinville.

Shortly before Tim Baldermann retired as Chicago Ridge's police chief, the town boosted his salary by more than $70,000, handing the 44-year-old as big a paycheck in retirement as he earned full time on the police force.

Even by the standards of this deficit-ridden state, Illinois’s comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes, faces an ugly balance sheet. Precisely how ugly becomes clear when he beckons you into his office to examine his daily briefing memo.

In many places, voters become disenchanted when politicians move directly from high offices to lucrative jobs as lobbyists and consultants. Not in Illinois. Here, we are just happy when a politician doesn't go directly from high office to prison.

Michael Madigan calmly sliced his daily apple as he listened to the 40-minute pitch from several leaders of Oak Lawn, long frustrated in their efforts to secure money for a dilapidated water system that supplies much of the south suburbs.

Limits on how much contributors can give to politicians had come to symbolize what reform meant in the post-Blagojevich landscape. But the commissioners assembled that morning at the end of May thought the proposal scheduled for a vote in a few hours fell

More than 33 years and 1,600 miles separate Dan Walker from his days in the governor's mansion in Springfield. Yet he's bracing to have his name dragged into the news again when another federal jury renders another verdict in another corruption trial of a

The 2009 Index of Worker Freedom (IWF) is the Alliance for Worker Freedom’s second sate-by-state comparative study that measures the level of worker freedom by analyzing actual policy as well as quantitative state data.

State Senate candidate Cedra Crenshaw said Monday she supports a complete audit of the state financial records to identify wasteful spending and posting all documents online. “You’ve got to open everything up and reform how we do things,” said Crenshaw,

A candidate for State Senate is focusing on her campaign after winning a battle to get on the fall ballot. Cedra Crenshaw is a suburban mom who identifies with the tea party movement, and she's taking on Democratic State Senator A.J. Wilhelmi in the south

The Chicago Machine’s desperate and unsuccessful attempt to knock us off the ballot has only rocketed our campaign to the national stage. Thanks to your passionate and pervasive voices, our message is ringing out across the country.

After seven months of dire predictions and the expected layoffs of about 1,200 classroom teachers, Chicago Public Schools finally crossed the final stretch to a balanced budget by completely drawing down its reserve funds.

In a break with tradition, many teachers no longer grade homework and prefer instead to calculate a student's grade point average based on how they perform in class. They say homework shows effort more than brains.

Cedra Crenshaw proved to be too quick to be the latest victim of the Chicago Machine. She’s running for the Illinois state Senate as a Tea Party Republican, and Democrats did their best to keep her off the ballot. Though the district is reportedly 2-1 De

In October, 2009, at an Illinois GOP Governor Candidate Debate, moderator Chris Robling opened the debate with the line, “The on-going concern of the State of Illinois is in question!” He was right, and the primary reasons Illinois is such a mess is the

As we feared, the Chicago Democrat Machine reached into neighboring Will County and lined up a couple Democrat officials to throw Cedra Crenshaw, GOP candidate for the 43rd State Senate District, off the ballot. The Machine candidate in the district, A.J.

During the 1996 Illinois Senate race, an aspiring Chicago politician hired skilled attorneys to exploit election rules and challenge his primary opponents’ right to be placed on the ballot. This novice politician was Barack Obama who cut his teeth on Chic

Last week, I reported how the Chicago Democrat machine had injected itself into neighboring Will County in attempt to knock me on the ballot. My candidacy against a legacy politician, the specially appointed AJ Wilhelmi, was too much of a threat to the st

As the NAACP prepares to condemn the tea party movement for phantom “explicitly racist behavior”, the Department of Justice and the NAACP overlook actual instances of explicitly racist behavior by the New Black Panther Party. Blatant disregard for actual